Judging from this, it looks like the aftermarket cables have trouble going over 60W, but they probably support 100W charging. If you had a 100W charger, I’d expect them to still work. My theory is that they only support up to 100W or 120W and don’t charge as well or fail over that.
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Most cables come from China, but with all things some have a higher standard of quality. If a cable comes from a random seller for an unusually low price they probably bought a bunch that failed someone else’s quality check but still “worked” to some degree. Don’t expect them to meet the stated specs.
The computer switches from ‘on AC power’ mode to ‘battery’ mode when the computer is idle and is not being used. At that point it is drawing maybe 10-15W of power. I would agree with you assessment if the fault happened during either heavy use or when recharging the battery from some low percentage of battery charge … but it is not.
To put the assertion of ‘low quality cable’ to rest, I have asked Framework support to provide me a link to an aftermarket cable that, in their opinion, should work. This cable needs to be sold and shipped by Amazon.ca. I will order the cable and try it. If it works I will admit that the issue was caused by a low quality cable.
I just checked Framework Marketplace and the USB-C cables for the Framework 16 laptop are ‘coming soon’. So I currently do not have the option of buying an original cable.
You can buy the 180W charger, though, that comes with the cable. So if you’re in need of another high-power charger (like me for stationary use at two locations), that might be an option.
You have the original Framework 13 cable, correct? Nrp confirmed that one is a 5 amp cable with an e-marker chip.
Unfortunately I no longer have a working original Framework 13 cable … come to think of it, I think my wife’s Framework 13 might possibly have an original cable. I will check it out.
I am currently using this and it is working well:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C4FDJ8F7
This is the closest one that I can find on the Canadian store:
https://www.amazon.ca/Anker-Bio-Based-Charging-MacBook-Samsung/dp/B09ZL4N9DW
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Surprised Amazon did not remove that review. Is there a 240w charger?
Framework support was unable to provide a link to a suggested aftermarket cable.
I am currently running a test with the cable I tried before and so far there have been no disconnects in about 12 hours. I will keep testing this to see how long it takes before failure.
I have found an original Framework 13 USB-C cable. When/if the cheap cable causes a charge disconnect on the Framework 16, I will run the same test with the Framework 13 cable.
Thank you everybody for your input!
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If you are in the USA, Best Buy sells 240W rated cables (I have used them for lower watts but I don’t have my FW16 yet so I can’t test higher watts)